“Why do you want to work here?”

Like a similarly problematic interview question — “Tell me about yourself” — “Why do you want to work here?” requires you to focus on a specific answer without any clues, contexts, or prompting from the interviewer. It’s a blank space — but that doesn’t mean you can wing it and fill it with just anything.

How to Answer “Why Do You Want to Work Here?”

Drawing from my 16 years of experience as a communications coach as well as someone who’s sat on both sides of the interview table many times, I recommend three basic approaches:

1. Express your personal passion for the employer’s product/service/mission.
2. Explain why you would enjoy the responsibilities of the role.
3. Describe how you can see yourself succeeding in the role, given your skills and experience.

You can use any combination of these three approaches so long as you keep your answer concise. Here’s how to tackle each approach effectively along with sample answers to use as a guide.

1. Express your personal passion for the employer’s product/service/mission.

Employers want to know you’re passionate about what they do, whether it takes the shape of a product, a service, a mission, or a brand. You can also connect your passion to the company’s core values, which can often be found on their website. Showing you’re passionate about the position is particularly important if you’re applying for a role at a nonprofit where the mission matches your personal values.

But how do you convey this enthusiasm? CEO consultant Sabina Nawaz offers useful tips in her HBR piece, “How to Show You’re Passionate in an Interview.” As she writes, “When you’re passionate about something, it tends to spill over into other aspects of your life.” Identify those examples in your own life and share them during your interview. Expressing enthusiasm is not about “display[ing] the kind of full-throated, table-thumping behaviours companies tend to equate with passion,” Sabina explains. It’s about conveying “what matters most to you.”

And remember to be clear about why you are passionate, not just that you are passionate. Simon Sinek has schooled us all on the importance of “why,” and it’s no less important in a job interview than it is in a sales call or CEO keynote.

2. Explain why you would enjoy the responsibilities of the role.

It’s no secret that we work harder, better, and longer when we enjoy the work, and what employer wouldn’t want that dedication from their staff? But it’s your responsibility to make that connection between job and joy clear. That connection can be as simple as “X is something I enjoy,” but expressing how or why you enjoy it makes that point even more valuable and memorable.

3. Describe how you can see yourself succeeding in the role, given your skills and experience.

While the interviewer is hiring you for who you are and what you can do now, they’re also interested in what you can achieve in the future. After all, they’re not just hiring you; they’re investing in you.

Express confidence about your ability to succeed and grow in the role. Use phrases like “Given my experience in X, I can see myself succeeding…,” “I look forward to using my skills to…,” and “I think I will contribute by….” The key is to describe how your previous experience has prepared you to hit the ground running.

Summary

Before your next interview, practice your response to “Why do you want to work here?” out loud, not just in your head. And keep in mind that the best answer is less about why you want them and more about why they should want you. If you convey passion, enthusiasm, and optimism with specificity, you’ll connect to the interviewer’s wish list in a way that will leave them thinking, “This is why we want you to work here.”

Read the full article at the link below!

source: https://hbr.org/2022/08/how-to-answer-why-do-you-want-to-work-here

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Alongside technical ability, one of the most important things to consider during a job search is whether the company culture within an organisation is right for you. Whilst the role might be perfect, if the values of the business are not aligned with yours this can lead to job dissatisfaction and a decrease in productivity.

We’ve listed below some essential things to consider that will help you to determine this.

Do Your Research

When considering a company’s culture, it is essential to do your research. Do the company’s values match your own?

One way to ascertain whether the company is a right fit for you is to examine staff turnover rates; are they high? If so, why are they so high? Use sites such as Glassdoor and WorkAdvisor to read reviews about the company from previous employees. Whilst these may need to be taken with a pinch of salt, they are a good indicator of how a company treats their employees.

Another way to conduct research into a company’s culture is to look at their online presence. Does their company culture shine through? What content are they posting? Do they post about their employees? These are all questions to contemplate when scrolling through their feed.

Consider the Environment

A main aspect to company culture is how the organisation is structured.

What type of environment do you work best in? Would you prefer a more independent remote working situation, or would you rather be surrounded by other members of your team and feel constantly supported?

This also correlates with what motivates you and your career ambitions. If you are looking to climb the tech leadership ladder does the company offer opportunities for development? Are there schemes in place to help you progress in your career, for example, mentoring?

During the Interview

Not only is the interview stage about proving you have the skills and experience required for the role, it is also a chance for both prospective employer and employee to gage whether they would fit into the organisation.

As part of the interview process prospective employers should mention their company culture. If their company culture is heavily ingrained into the daily running of the organisation, then it should be effortlessly mentioned throughout the interview. If a prospective employer is proud of their company culture, they should make a point of noting it to you during the interview, if otherwise not mentioned, this is where you would ask specific questions. 

During the interview is your opportunity to fact check what you have found in your research. Go deeper than a general ‘What is the company culture like?’ and dive into the nitty gritty of how employees are treated, what strategies the business has in place to promote diversity and inclusion within its practices.

If you are a talented tech professional looking for your next role, contact us today!

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Many of the fantastic women who have participated in our W.I.T. Republic Q&A series discuss what they think businesses can do to encourage more women into a career in the industry.

We’ve taken on board their advice and listed some key things to look out for and consider when searching for your next role, that will help you to determine which companies truly care about your experience as a woman in tech within their business.

Inclusive Work Culture

During the hiring process one of the best ways to identify whether a company values the experience of their female engineers is to look at their leadership team. Do they advocate for women in the company and promote women to senior leadership positions? Research conducted by IDC suggests that companies are more likely to offer equal pay and have a higher job satisfaction rate where 50% or their senior leadership positions are held by women.

Representation in leadership roles is key as it highlights the career progression opportunities within the company.

Ask what initiatives they have within the organisation to empower women. Is there a mentorship program available? To learn more about the benefits of mentorship, take a listen to our podcast episode with Irina Ioana Brudaru, Executive Coach/Advisor at Codette.

Flexible Working Opportunities

Does the company you are interviewing for offer flexible working opportunities?

Whilst the pandemic has highlighted the potential for working remotely, research suggests that even prior to the events of the previous year, being able to work flexibly was a high priority for women in tech. One study found that 76% of women in the industry believed that offering flexible working opportunities would make them stay with their organisation longer.

Diversity Focus

One way to ascertain whether a company is committed to creating a more diverse and inclusive environment for women in tech is to look not only at their internal processes and procedures but also their external activities. They can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk?

Do they attend diversity events in the industry? Are they working solely with recruitment companies who are committed to increasing the number of female software engineers in the industry?

Thinking about these three aspects when interviewing for a new role will help you to choose the right company for you.

If you are a talented tech professional looking to find your next role, speak to our specialist consultants today!

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The job of programmer is one of the high-paid jobs in the market and one of the coolest jobs people find to do. Learning to code and mastering it can take years for a beginner. Most people give up before they truly get started. In the beginning, we get very excited about the concept of learning to code, but later in most of cases students or beginners give up quickly because they find it difficult to continue, they get stuck and they face difficulty in finding the solution for a code. Learning to program isn’t an overnight journey but it’s also not as difficult as people think about it, all it just requires is dedication, passion, interest, and definitely patience.

There are so many online and offline resources available to learn to code easily, quickly, and effectively. Here we discuss some tips to learn programming effectively and faster.

1. Make Your Fundamentals Clear:

A common mistake that a student or beginner commit while learning programming is skipping the fundamentals or chapter 1 and directly jumping to the next chapter right away. To understand the advanced concepts of programming you need to be very clear about the fundamentals of programming. If you will be doing the same mistake then at some point, you will end up with lots of confusion and you will have to come back to your basics again. These fundamentals are Data Structures, variables, control structures, syntax, tools, or text editors. When you start doing programming pick one programming language, stick with it, and clear all the basics of programming first before going to the next level. Your overall time to learn coding will be definitely saved if you will follow this path.

2. Learn By Doing, Practicing and Not Just Reading:

A common mistake beginners do while learning programming is just reading a book or looking at the sample code on their desktop without practicing it. It’s easy to read about the loops, variables, and getting all the things in your head but actual programming doesn’t work in this way. You really need to get your hands dirty in coding and keep practicing it regularly. When you start programming you face a lot of problems, you get stuck there, you will be asked to implement the code practically and find the solution for a specific problem and there you will scratch your head while implementing the code. When you write the code, play with the code, change your code to see different results, optimize the code and try different solutions, your logical thinking ability get improves day by day and you eventually learn a lot of things that make you a better programmer. When you start coding, practice the same code or sample again and again until or unless you don’t need to refer to the same book or resource from where you have learned. Also build your own project, participate in coding challenges, play coding related games, practice it at your own end every single day.

3. Code By Hand:

When you start programming as a beginner you will be thinking that why should I code by hand. It’s a time-consuming process, I can’t run and check my code on paper and also if I actually need to implement something on my system then why should I use pen and paper. One of the biggest reasons is the interviews. When you will apply for jobs in programming, most of the time the technical evaluation process will include code by hand. You will be asked to write code using pen and paper or you might have to use a whiteboard. Coding by hand is something old-school technique but it actually involves a test for a programmer’s proficiency. Coding by hand can give you a clear understanding of syntax and algorithms, you make a deeper connection in your brain. Learning programming this way will make your work easier and faster later.

4. Share, Teach, Discuss and Ask For Help:

One of the best ways to understand programming easily and quickly is teaching. Teaching to someone, sharing your knowledge, doing discussions with other programmers will make you a better programmer quickly. Teaching to someone is teaching to yourself too, so if you are able to teach to somebody that means you truly understand the concepts. It is the best habit to learn something in-depth and you will realize that you don’t need to come back on the same topic.
You can also participate in open source projects, discuss your code with your co-programmers or contribute on Github, also you can take help from forum or discussion site. When you learn programming do not hesitate in asking for help. Beginners do this mistake and feel shy when they need to ask for help. It doesn’t matter if you ask silly questions and look stupid, it will help you in the long run and if you don’t do it you will be struggling in coding later. So it’s good to find a mentor or take help from fellow programmers to understand concepts easily and quickly. Your mentor or professional can guide you better because they have been already in your shoes before.

5. Use Online Resources:

There are plenty of online resources available paid or unpaid. You can take help from these online resources and start your programming journey. You can subscribe to youtube channels or try coding boot camps to learn programming quickly and effectively. GeeksforGeeks, Udemy, Coursera and plenty of resources available for guidance and to learn programming. Also make a habit of reading programming related blogs, and taking help from Stackoverflow, Reddit’s “learn programming” subreddit like site or online community.

6. Take Breaks:

If you want to learn programming it’s not good to sit in front of a computer for hours and hours and try to grasp everything in one go. You will be exhaust by doing this so it’s better to learn coding in chunks. Take some short breaks to get refreshed. You should also keep this thing in mind while debugging your code. Sometimes you spend hours and hours to find the bug but you don’t get the solution for your code so it’s good to take a short break, clear your mind and do something else. It will restore your focus and you may come up with the solution for your code where you were stuck. Also, try to eliminate all kinds of distractions. Turn off your phone notification, email notifications and try to isolate yourself to be focused. By doing this you will save your lot of time and will stay away from headache or frustration.

7. Learn to Use Debugger:

Making mistakes in coding is very common and it’s completely acceptable in programming. You will find a lot of errors in your code at the beginning so it’s good to use debuggers to find out errors, impacts on your result and check where you have made the mistake. You will save a lot of time using a debugger or a tool to fix the errors in your code. If you are good at debugging, it will be easier to learn to program. So learn to use some good debugging techniques or use tools to check your piece of code.

In the end, the last tip is not to quit when you start your journey in programming. You might be thinking in the middle that you are not smart enough to code but keep in mind that in order to think like a coder it takes some time and patience but to learn it quickly, you just need to follow the right path and be consistent. Follow everything step-by-step, make your fundamentals clear first, keep practicing it and once you are done with basics take the challenges and participate in competitive programming on different sites to get better at it, to build your logical ability, and to think like a coder. You will find yourself later how good a coder you have become by practicing it each and every single day.

source: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/7-tips-and-tricks-to-learn-programming-faster/

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What Interests You?

One of the best ways to improve your code is to work on something you find interesting. Whether that’s in your 9-5 job or as a side project, working on something you are passionate about will keep you motivated to learn and develop your coding skills. Diving into a project will also ensure that you go that one step further to really enhance your coding ability than simply watching videos and reading – practical application will help you to develop your skills and have the confidence to work with them.

Technology is intertwined so heavily with our day to day lives that the opportunities for finding a project that suits your interests are endless.

Set Goals

Setting goals will help you to improve your code as they give you something to work towards.

The key when setting goals for yourself is to make them measurable and realistic. This will ensure that you are able to maintain your motivation and passion for code when working towards your goals.

The great thing about setting goals is being able to celebrate achieving them. Don’t forget to congratulate yourself with what you’ve been able to achieve!

Join the Community

One of the great things about the tech industry are the multitude of communities you can get involved with.

Joining a community not only enables you to improve your code by attending events and meet-ups around particular programming languages that you are utilising, it is also a great way to meet and network with like-minded individuals in the industry. Communities not only provide you with an additional resource that you can use to develop your coding skills; having the opportunity to network with other tech professionals and build those relationships also allows you to build a network that you can go to for help and advice. Whether that be for your coding development or overall career guidance.

If you’re looking to attend a community event, check out our W.I.T. Republic Eventbrite page to stay updated on what we have coming up!

If you are a talented tech professional looking to take the next step in your career, speak to our specialist consultants today.

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That being said, the office is not dead. Research suggests the majority of UK employees want a mix of office-based and remote working post-pandemic. According to a survey of 1,000 workers by The Adecco Group UK and Ireland, 77% of UK employees say a “hybrid” model of working would be ideal, with 79% adding that more flexibility is important.

“A hybrid working model is where people split their time between the office and home. They may also make use of a co-working space, cafe or members club. We’re hearing a lot about various styles of hybrid working at the moment,” says Victoria McLean, founder & CEO of City CV, a career consultancy and outplacement services firm.

“That’s because during the pandemic we’ve all been told to work from home if possible,” she adds. “But, preliminary findings from employee research, suggests that (when it’s safe) some would prefer some kind of combined home/office working pattern.

“In practice, that’s likely to mean two to three days a week in the office and two to three days a week working at home, but those patterns will vary depending on the employer, the job role and geography.”

Alongside prompting the workforce to question where they want to work, the pandemic has also given rise to a strong sense that the traditional 9-5 is outdated. Instead of being tied to our office desks, we can work in a way that suits us – which can boost our job satisfaction, productivity and morale.

“Many believe hybrid working is the way forward because it combines the best of both worlds,” McLean says. “People have enjoyed many aspects of working from home over the last year. It’s given them more flexibility and, as they’ve been freed from the grind of the daily commute, they’ve had more time for family, exercise, hobbies and sleep. Many have also reported that they’re more productive at home.”

That being said, not everyone has enjoyed the transition to home-working. Some people have found it difficult to juggle home life with the demands of their job, while others have felt isolated and unable to switch off from work.

“With hybrid working the idea is that people will be hyper-productive at home and hyper- collaborative in the office,” says McLean. However, shifting to a hybrid working can take a lot of planning.

“Facilities management, HR and line managers all need to coordinate well. There are also some concerns that it will create a two-tier workplace with an ‘in-crowd’ and an ‘at-home’ crowd that could be divisive,” she adds.

So how can employers make hybrid working a success?

“Choosing the right technology and flexi office space will help to optimise communications, productivity and collaboration. But, the most important factor is getting the culture right,” explains McLean. “Presenteeism is out of the window. Managers need to trust their teams to design their own workday and focus on output and achievements.

“Avoiding an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality is critical and teams will need to bond through frequent communications – both formal reviews and informal conversations.”

Alan Price, HR expert and CEO at the HR software and employment law advice service, BrightHR, says it’s also important to maintain communication with all employees.

“This can be achieved by holding regular weekly/daily meetings with them either in person or remotely. Most importantly, to determine the arrangement’s effectiveness, staff should be given clear targets to work towards, which can be evaluated during these regular meetings,” he says.

“Employers have a duty of care towards their staff and must ensure that the working environment is safe while they are in the office,” Price adds. “This should remain a priority for hybrid staff, as is it for staff fully situated in the workplace and ensuring that they are given support for any mental health issues they may be facing. This support should be accessible both in the workplace and at home.”

In addition, policies and procedures will need to be well-documented and transparent. You can’t just assume people can find out what they need to know by asking a colleague down the corridor.

“Companies will also need to invest time and resources in onboarding and integrating new employees and developing and mentoring all employees – wherever they happen to be working from,” says McLean. “However, the benefits from improved productivity, team morale and employee mental health can make hybrid working worthwhile for many organisations.”

source: https://uk.style.yahoo.com/coronavirus-switch-to-hybrid-working-remote-work-back-to-the-office-164242590.html

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Further findings from this study show that 56% of women do believe their company is attempting to close the gender gap, at the moment this is still mostly half-hearted, which they think needs to change.

Not only should companies be acting on employing more women, they also need to invest time in nurturing their female talent. Diversity and equality are much more than just a number.

One of the most problematic findings from this study, was that women feel it’s harder for them to re-enter the technology industry after a break, and that this is actually detrimental to their career progression. They mentioned feeling that they lack support when re-entering the industry.

Gillian Tans, CEO of Booking.com, commented on this study – “Women bring tremendous value that can positively impact both tech companies and the industry globally and should be part of proactive initiatives focused on inclusivity, retention and skills development.”

Overall, considering more than half of women in the industry are more than happy to get involved and help accelerate their company’s diversity drives, this should be considered more of a priority than it currently is.

What are your thoughts?

If you’re looking for your dream role in tech, get in touch with our specialist teams for a confidential chat today!

Source: https://www.itpro.co.uk/business-strategy/33301/diversity-not-a-company-priority-claim-nearly-half-of-women-in-tech

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In this article, we’ll cover some key best practices for managers and organizational leaders to be aware of. Make sure to check out our website to learn how cutting-edge cloud security solutions can help you respond to the most pressing cybersecurity threats in 2021.

Start Cybersecurity Training

An organization is only as strong as its weakest link, and the vast majority of data breaches involve some kind of employee error. With that in mind, getting your entire team up to speed is one of the simplest ways to improve your cybersecurity practices.

First, make sure everyone understands basic security tactics such as using strong passwords, using a different password for each account, and enabling two-factor authentication whenever possible. From there, you can give them a chance to ask questions and make sure they understand any relevant organizational policies. You may also want to let your IT team brief your staff on any emerging threats that they should be aware of.

Communicate with Vendors and Partners

You can make changes to your organization’s internal security policies, but you have comparatively little control over how your partners and vendors manage their own cybersecurity. If they can’t give you a thorough review of their practices, you should carefully consider whether you want to continue working with them. Make sure to work with trustworthy providers for web hosting and other digital services.

Update Access Permissions

Staying on top of access permissions can be complicated, but consistent reviews will help you close loopholes more quickly. Two-factor authentication will prevent the vast majority of external access attempts, but they won’t do anything for internal threats.

If an employee no longer works for you, for example, it’s important to remove their access privileges as soon as possible. It only takes one disgruntled employee to cause a massive data breach, and these cases have affected numerous organizations and governments. Your team should only be given permission to access files on an as-needed basis, and those privileges should be revoked as soon as they’re no longer necessary.

Building strong cybersecurity practices takes time, but these simple tactics will go a long way toward making your organization more secure. While getting started is the hardest step, it’s important to continue auditing your company’s security policies and adapting your approach based on the latest emerging threats.

The post 3 Security Best Practices to Implement in 2021 appeared first on W.I.T. Republic.

If you’re a beginner, the best advice is to simply learn your language, frameworks, and tools top to bottom and gain more experience with a variety of different projects.

If you’re an experienced software developer, you should constantly try to find new ways to optimize your code for readability, performance, and maintainability, and then practice making well-reasoned decisions about where to focus time and resources in your code—whether it’s testing, performance optimization, or other technical debt.

Those are some of the themes you’ll find if you ask veteran software engineers to share their best advice for being a great programmer. There aren’t any well-kept secrets. The advice of many of the most successful developers is readily available to you on blogs and forums.

Here is the most illustrative advice and recurring tips from blogs and forums, organized into five categories.

Whether you have five, ten, or twenty years of experience programming—or if you have almost no experience— just about every developer will find some good ideas for self-improvement.

Domains, architecture, and design

1. The best programmers can take a complex problem, break it down into smaller pieces, solve each of those pieces, and then put everything back together to solve the initial problem.

2.  Software is just a tool for solving domain problems. Since it’s needed in almost all domains, develop in one that interests you. If you understand a domain well and are passionate about it, you’ll be a much better, more motivated developer. You’ll also be exponentially more valuable and lucrative to companies hiring in your chosen domain.

3.  Don’t let one domain pigeonhole you into one way of coding. An example would be a mobile developer who is mainly good at hooking together existing APIs but can’t come up with a sane data representation. Don’t be a one-trick pony.

4.  Plan your code away from the computer. It will help you build a clear mental model before you start. You use the same strategy in writing, because if you don’t have an outline, your content becomes a messy stream of consciousness.

5.  “When you’re stuck, write your program on paper. I’m serious. It’s magic. This is standard practice in programming competitions. (I think it works because when you don’t have to think about syntax you have more excess brain power to solve the actual problem.)” (Source)
—Joseph Gentle

6.  “Compelling web apps tend to be the ones that use data in unexpected ways or in ways that solve everyday problems. Learn everything you can about data storage.” (Source)
—Maggie Nelson

7.  As an architect, you can’t have blind spots in your understanding of your applications and their execution environments. You need to know how things work in the front end (UI), the back end, the data store, the OS, any virtualization layers, the hardware, the network, and the data center.

Languages, tools, and advancing from beginner to intermediate

8.  Contribute to open-source projects as a bridge from beginner to intermediate. Collaborate with the developers of the project and attend meetups to collaborate with other developers in person.

9.  Don’t let anything get in the way of that initial motivation to learn programming and just build something. Sometimes you block yourself by having too much focus on reading books or resources first. Other times beginners will try to find the perfect first language. Your first language doesn’t matter. What matters is learning to program well. Just start coding.

10.  “Learning programming languages is NOT learning how to program. Focus on programming techniques, problem solving, and analytical skills, not on learning as many languages as you can.”
—Richard Eng

11.  Learn multiple programming paradigms such as object-oriented programming, functional programming, reflective programming, etc. Believe it or not, your programming in one paradigm will improve after studying an alternative paradigm.

12.  “Wherever possible, always choose the simpler programming language. More complex languages increase the cognitive load on your brain. Simpler languages do not necessarily give up anything in terms of power or expressiveness.”
—Richard Eng

13.  Beginners learn just enough of their tools to get by. To become an intermediate or expert developer, you need to know your tools cold. Learn all of the features, menus, and context menus. Learn to use them without a mouse by memorizing keyboard shortcuts. Find every “tips and tricks” article available.

14.  Learn your stack on the deepest levels before you decide to reinvent the wheel. Peter Nixey gives a few good examples: “If you are a Ruby developer take time to learn the language’s incredible range of methods. If you are a Node developer, take time to understand the architecture, the methods, and the mindset of Node. If you are an Angular developer go right up to the rock-face and understand the logic behind of the incredible architecture the core team is forging there right now. Ask before you invent.” (Source)
—Peter Nixey

15.  The same goes for the languages you work in. Learn the most important libraries for your use cases. The more libraries you’re aware of, the less likely you are to try reinventing the wheel.

16.  Whenever you can, use programming languages that will eliminate entire classes of run-time errors. To do that, look for languages with features like strong typing, static typing, managed memory, and/or immutable data.

17.  “Frameworks, libraries, languages, never mind if you can’t understand what you find under the hood on your first attempt. You can always put them aside and return to them later, just see to it that you can take them apart and have a look. All the rules you have to follow when you first learn were invented by someone, you can make them yours to reinvent with some persistence. Steer clear of tools that put barriers in the way of this activity, those make you depend on them in the wrong way.” (Source)
—Jan Christian Meyer

18.  “[When reading high-quality code], it might be tempting to look for main() and start from there, but you’re likely to spend a lot of time just reading set-up code and command-line parsing. I prefer to scan the filenames to look for some activity that interests me and then dig into those files. It’s not crucial to understand the whole project or the ins and outs of the entire design, you’ll wear yourself out doing this. Read the code. Look at the comments, see what the authors are doing, and how they went about it.” (Source)
—Andrew Binstock

19.  Create some of your own tools. (But of course, if you’re going to use it in production, make sure it’s not another wheel reinvention.)

20.  Make common programs that have been made before. Not for a production project (see “reinventing the wheel”), but as a learning project. If other developers can make a calculator, text editor, paint, Tetris, or Pong, then so can you. Look at several examples of these apps written by more experienced developers and try to learn their tricks.

21.  Develop an aesthetic appreciation for code. Read the source code of famous open-source tools and frameworks such as Ruby on Rails or Jenkins, and get familiar with norvig.com. Over time, you need to train yourself to know what great code looks like and what bad code “smells” like.

Code readability and maintainability

22.  “Don’t ask permission to refactor, test, document etc. It’s all part of ‘programming’. Don’t ask permission to do your job.” (Source)
—Jerome Terry

23.  “Fix what isn’t broken. You should go to your last project and read through the code. Think about what each piece does. There’s a loop here, some sorting there, a bit of number crunching, screen updates, HTML generation, database CRUD, that sort of thing. Now replace the hard-coded HTML with a templating system, get the database CRUD out of your business objects and re-write it to use proper parameterized queries instead of string concatenation, replace all the “writelns” and “MessageBoxes” in your error handlers with a logging framework, refactor code that’s trying to borrow methods from other classes, use locale-aware string formatting, stop guessing how big an array should be and use a dynamic collection, delete orphaned code.” (Source)
—Chris Wenham

24.  Most developers have heard the saying, “Always write code as if the person who ends up maintaining it will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.” What that means realistically is that you should write readable code that could be easily comprehended a year later by someone who’s disinterested and in a hurry. If you’ve ever had to dig through indecipherable code, you know why this is so important. Have some empathy for the developers who will read your code.

25.  Name variables so that other developers can understand your code better. This is a skill you need to nurture.

26.  Using inheritance often reduces testability and reusability of your object-oriented code in the long run. Your first choice should be using composition and interfaces.

27.  Don’t use design patterns like a hammer looking for a nail. If you don’t have a clear reason you need it, don’t use it.

28.  Always favor shallow code hierarchies to deep-nested code (whether it’s inside or outside a function). Deep-nested code is harder to maintain, harder to reuse, and more likely to create bugs.

29.  Reusable code is helpful and important, but trying to write overgeneralized, super flexible code is often a waste of time. This kind of code is usually harder to maintain and causes bugs. It’s okay to hardcode some things if your code is doing one task.

30.  Master the art of debugging using “print statements.” There are many scenarios where a sophisticated debugger is not available to you, but I’ve never found a platform nor environment where you couldn’t output textual information to a screen or file.
—Richard Eng

31.  Having great writing and communication skills directly translates into programming capability. Joel Spolsky can elaborate on why this is:
“The difference between a tolerable programmer and a great programmer is not how many programming languages they know, and it’s not whether they prefer Python or Java. It’s whether they can communicate their ideas. By persuading other people, they get leverage. By writing clear comments and technical specs, they let other programmers understand their code, which means other programmers can use and work with their code instead of rewriting it. Absent this, their code is worthless.”

32.  Just like natural languages, you haven’t mastered programming until you see and think in code. A popular book, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Abelson, Sussman, is one of the best resources to help you do this. Don’t worry that its examples are in Scheme; it’s an optimal language for learning to think in code.

Technical debt, code coverage, and process

33.  Donald Knuth, is known for his maxims “When in doubt, use brute force” and “Premature optimization is the root of all evil.” When he says “use brute force,” he means that you shouldn’t let yourself get stuck trying to come up with a prematurely optimal algorithm. Just use the simplest, unsophisticated algorithm that will work and iterate from there. Using the simplest formula will also help you better understand how your software should work so that you can start forming a mental model with which to think of better, more efficient algorithms.

34.  Know when to take on technical debt and when to pay it off so it doesn’t compound. When exploring (and discarding) different features and pivoting frequently, borrow heavily on technical debt. When your position is stable and your direction is clearer, optimize your remaining features and clean up bugs to pay off that technical debt before moving on to the next stage.

35.  Within the context of your projects, learn what the right amount of testing is. Too little and your software becomes unreliable and everyone is afraid to deploy to production. Too much and you’ll end up wasting too much time and resources writing and maintaining them, while also making the development process slower.

36.  Estimating time is hard. This is why iterative development methods such as Scrum are so popular. Push yourself and your team to have increasingly shorter release cycles. Surprisingly, shipping code more frequently reduces risk instead of increasing it. It forces you to have better organizational practices and make a better product for the customer with faster feedback.

37.  Commit your code in small, working chunks and write a detailed commit messages that will help developers find and understand bugs that may have been introduced in that commit. Just summarize what you did and why you did it.

38.  Most developers don’t think about security in every unit of code they write. Many think that frameworks will handle that for them. Don’t be like most developers.

39.  You can spend an exponentially greater amount of time hunting down the last 1% of bugs in a project than you would for the first 90%. If you’re not working in a domain that requires your software to work perfectly 99.999% of the time, then you should spend less time debugging the edge cases and features people probably won’t use.

Soft skills and productivity

40. Have large chunks of time set aside for focused coding each day. The quantity of time spent coding is meaningless if it’s full of interruptions such as meetings, emails, and web browsing.

41.  Communicate clearly with your team about what you’re doing each day. Talking about your architectural approaches will help you think about those approaches in new ways. It has nothing to do with proving to people that you’re doing good work. More likely, your team will have some ideas you would have never thought of on your own, and you’ll solve problems a lot faster. Your team should also document solutions and share them on a wiki to save valuable time for everyone.

42.  Don’t be ashamed to admit when you don’t know something. As a developer, you’re often solving new problems, so you can’t be expected to know all the solutions immediately. Trying to hide your lack of knowledge only slows the learning process.

43.  Don’t be afraid to share your unfinished work with others frequently.

44.  “Emotionally detach from your code. Find the code that you’re the most proud of and delete it, then rewrite it from scratch in a different way. Use a “design pattern” that confuses you or that you hate (e.g., the Singleton) and figure out how to make it work. If necessary, delete that after you’ve got it working and try again with a new pattern or language. Not only will you learn that there’s More Than One Way To Do It, but you’ll learn that your code is transitory. Code, by its nature, is not just inextricably glued to its language, platform, and the APIs it consumes, but written in the form of ephemeral static charges, orientations of magnetic particles, subject to the whims of the market, Moore’s Law, and your employer. … Remember that emotional detachment from code is a virtue, but this doesn’t mean emotional detachment from your work is, too. In fact, another way to become emotionally detached from code is to put your interest into the outcome instead.” (Source)
—Chris Wenham

45.  Googling is a crucial developer skill. Learning how to do something you haven’t done before and finding optimal solutions from the collective intelligence of the developer community is half the battle in programming.

46.  “Good programmers know what to write, but great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse).” (Source)
—Eric S. Raymond

47.  Teach. Even if you’re a novice at programming, you’re knowledgeable about something. Teaching teaches the teacher. And if you can train other workers, your manager should realize that you’re exponentially more valuable.

48.  Don’t focus on becoming a “10x” programmer. Read these articles by Matt Asay and Scott Hanselman to see why.

49.  “You won’t—you cannot—become a better programmer through sheer force of programming alone. You can only complement and enhance your existing programming skills by branching out. Learn about your users. Learn about the industry. Learn about your business. The more things you are interested in, the better your work will be.” (Source)
—Jeff Atwood

50.  Make mistakes, ask questions, get rapid feedback, get uncomfortable, compare it to what you know, keep going. More on that here.

Additional resources and comments

Here are some books and other resources that were referenced multiple times by programmers giving advice for how to get better:

• Rich Hickey’s talk Simple Made Easy
• Kent Beck’s article XP Simplicity Rules
• Jim McCarthy’s book Dynamics of Software Development
• Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas’ book The Pragmatic Programmer

Take a look at some of these and then maybe pick some of your favorite pieces of advice from this article to create a tentative checklist for your personal growth.

Share some of your own advice in the comments below or tell us about some advice here that you really liked or disliked.

source: https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/50-tips-improving-your-software-development-game

The post Top Tips for Enhancing Your Career In Software Development appeared first on W.I.T. Republic.

Whether you’re currently a remote worker or are looking for a new remote role, here are some top tips to help you navigate the world of remote working. 

Routine is key

This one is essential! If you think working remotely means every day is made up of just an hour or two of work and the rest of the time is spent catching up with friends and bingeing on your favourite TV shows – you’d be sorely mistaken.

Developing a daily routine is essential when working remotely, it will enable you to maintain productivity and focus. It’s up to you to develop a schedule that works for both you and your team – and own it.

Consistent communication

Clear, and more importantly, consistent communication is key for remote work success. This doesn’t mean you need to be talking to your co-workers all day, every day, but letting them know that there is a means of getting hold of you should they need you, is important. For remote working to work from both sides, your colleagues need to know that there is a common tool for communication – to share ideas and ask questions.

There’s a number of great communication tools on the market in today’s increasingly digital age, but our favourite is Slack. You can create various channels for a range of different projects, teams and chats – you could even create channels for just general chit-chat. Tools like this help everyone to feel connected especially when you’re working remotely.

Connecting with people

While working remotely does have many benefits, you will definitely need human interaction at some point throughout your working week. It’s important to connect with people in person from time to time and work on building a community in whatever way works for you – meeting up with clients, going into the office once a week, it could even be taking the time to meet a friend or going to a gym class during your lunch break. Build a community and ensure you take the time to catch up with them regularly.

Create a workspace… and no pyjamas

It really goes without saying, but make sure you get yourself ready for the day and definitely get out of your pyjamas. It doesn’t necessarily need to be anything fancy, just something that isn’t what you wore to bed.

Along the same lines, try to create a space, where your brain knows it’s time to work, this could be in the corner of your bedroom, a separate study, a quiet café or a rented office space. Designating yourself a workspace and putting on a fresh outfit and, will do wonders for your mind and will get you out of relaxation mode and into work mode.

Mix it up

It’s great to experiment during the first few months of your new remote working life. This will help you to develop a pattern that you’ll be able to sustain over time. It’s also totally normal to revamp your routine over time. These are just a few of our tips – now you can go out there and navigate the world of remote working while experimenting with what works for you!

Are you looking for a new remote working role? Take a look at the jobs we’re currently working on or get in touch with our specialist recruiters today.

The post Tips for Remote Working Success appeared first on W.I.T. Republic.